SC15

The typical view of a cluster or supercomputer that uses a GPU, an FPGA or a Xeon Phi type device is that each node in the system requires one host or CPU to communicate through the PCIe root complex to 1-4 coprocessors. In some circumstances, the CPU/host model adds complexity, when all you really need is more coprocessors. This is where host-independent compute comes in. The CPU handles the networking transfer and when combined with the south bridge, manages the IO and other features. Some orientations allow the coprocessors to talk directly with each other, and the CPU part allows large datasets to be held in local host DRAM. However for some compute workloads, all you need is more coprocessor cards. Storage and memory might...